ADDITIONAL SKETCH FORTY-NINTH
REGIMENT.

By B. F. DIXON, Caprarn Company G.

The Forty-ninth Regiment was made up of as brave and
gallant men as ever shouldered muskets in defense of the
South. They were men who did not rush into the army at
the first call for volunteers, but who considered well what
they were doing, and then calmly and deliberately put down
their names as volunteers to defend their country. A large
majority of them were heads of families that were dependent
upon them for the bread necessary to sustain the lives of wife
and children. Yet those men kissing their wives and babies
good-bye in March 1862, with unwavering step marched to
the front to expose their lives to the bullets of a foe of twice
their number. Many a man volunteered in the very out-
break of the war because he had been told that the war would
not last sixty days. Indeed some of those war prophets of-
fered to drink all the blood that would be shed, so he hurried
away from home for fear that he would not get even a taste
of the much-coveted battle. All this had passed away when
the Forty-ninth Regiment was organized, and the men knew
that a desperate struggle was before them. The Northern
army had been greatly strengthened by recruits and disci-
pline, and the great Southern army had already begun to
realize the fact that one of the greatest wars ever waged ‘in
any country was then raging. Knowing this these men left
their homes and turned their faces toward Virginia, the great
battle field of the South. The Forty-ninth Regiment was
made up largely from the country, very few town men were
in it, and strange as it may seem, the town and city men were
able to endure loss of sleep and irregular hours better than
the men from the farms. I suppose the reason for this was
the fact that the countryman kept regular hours at home.
He went to sleep at 8 o’clock at night, and got up before the
sun. He had been accustomed all his life to three square